


lost rites

by AwayLaughing



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Akusai Month 2019, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Backstory, Canon Temporary Character Death, Complicated Relationships, Heartless (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Nobodies (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 20:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19731346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: Lea and Isa's last days in the dungeons of Hollow Bastion, when time has faded to meaningless nothing, and their sense of self sits on a knife's edge.(Or, the author utterly ignores everything said about their past in KH3)





	lost rites

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY AKUSAI MONTH EVERYONE WOOO
> 
> Here's my first story! I'm doing Slowburn but if the inspiration hits I might also add some of the Berserker prompts as the month progresses.
> 
> **Day 1**
> 
> Change // “You’re going to be fine.”

The dungeon wasn’t very dungeon-like, really. It wasn’t damp, it wasn’t particularly cold and it was pretty well lit. It did have crazy scientists though, and a row of cells filled with sobbing, groaning, pleading people. Or they had been. These days Lea and Isa heard more silence than not. Most of the cells they passed when they were taken out were empty, just one up at the front, with a lone occupant who was always huddled up too much to tell who they were. The girl across from them was still there, though her two cellmates were long gone. Isa’s and Lea’s third had died less than a week after they were dragged in, kicking and screaming. Lea didn’t remember his name. He and Isa and their neighbour, Yina, spoke, on occasion but mostly everyone slept until someone came to get them.

Doing nothing between bouts of torture was awfully exhausting, it turned out. Especially after so long.

So long that the marks Lea had scratched on the wall were too numerous to actually count these days. He’d lost track around day 400 but he was pretty certain they had spent well over two years in here at this point. They passage of days was marked only by the lights going off in the cell block though, so who knew how long it really was. Long enough that these days to fit on the beds Lea had to pretty much double over, long enough that Isa’s hair lay shaggy and hip-length from his refusal to let them touch it.

Wanting their consent for haircuts seemed beyond insane given everything else – the hours strapped to tables, the cocktails they plugged into them that left them screaming or giggling or basically dead – but apparently they wanted it. And Isa wouldn’t give it. Isa hadn’t, anyway until he came back after nearly a week away, hair about a foot shorter.

Or at least, the thing wearing Isa’s face had shorter hair.

At first he hadn’t thought much of it. Isa had acted pretty normal for a five day sojourn into the arms of their tormentors. Quiet, feet shuffling. He’d folded himself onto Lea’s bed and refused to say anything, stubbornly facing the wall. When Lea had curled up against him, squeezing into the meagre amount of space left, he’d been tense.

“Does anything hurt?” Lea had asked, voice less than a whisper.

“Yes,” Isa had said, voice dead.

“Can I do anything?”

“No.”

That was two days ago. At first Lea had refused to admit anything was strange – it was pretty normal for Isa to be withdrawn for a little while after something big happened. Or just in general. It wasn’t easy to spend all your time in a 9 by 9 space with the same person day after day. The second night he’d picked up on what had been unsettling him all day.

Isa wasn’t just silent, he was _silent_. And he wasn’t just still, he was _still_. Like a dead thing. Cool and limp and yet stiff. When Lea had pressed an exhausted kiss to his cheek out of habit, he’d jerked away in surprise. It reminded him of being a much younger boy, and being told to give his grandma one last kiss as she lay in shining coffin. Isa wasn’t powdery, but the coolness was the same.

So now here he was, trapped with something Isa’s face. Across the hall Yina hadn’t spoke in four days – he hadn’t seen her pale face looking out from the bars in three. They weren’t bringing her food either. It added to his unease, because he’d know if they’d taken her. She always kicked up a fuss, especially at night. Probably just so Lea and Isa would know where she was.

“What’s wrong?” Not-Isa asked from above him, where Lea had insisted he sleep up there so they could stretch out a bit. It was the first words he’d spoken since they’d fallen asleep.

“I think Yina’s dead,” Lea said, anything else catching in his throat.

Isa didn’t respond for a long moment – five heart beats. “I see,” was all he had after that and despite his best attempts Lea couldn’t suppress his bitter snort.

“You’re not Isa,” he said.

There was another pause, shorter this time before Isa asked in that eerie flat voice, “are you still Lea?”

Lea sucked in a breath as if he’d been punched, feeling the hot sting of tears at the question. He didn’t answer, and Isa didn’t say anything else, the cell filling with his heavy breathing as he refused to sob.

Across the hall, something sharp scrabbled at the rock walls. Something chittered, like a distorted nervous laugh. Below him the pillow was soggy, but he couldn’t even bring himself to flip it over. He was on the edge of sleep when a whisper hit his ears, and he jerked when a hand came down on his shoulder, pressing as if asking him to turn.

“Isa?” he asked, peering into the dark. He hadn’t heard him get up, he didn’t think, unless his five days had been spent being trained how to move like a ghost. Considering the shuffling, it seemed unlikely.

“Lea,” Isa said, a hint of something in his voice. Urgency, maybe.

“Am I?” Lea asked, the memory of Isa’s pointed question earlier stuck under his skin.

“You’re going to be fine,” Isa said, which wasn’t an answer and was even a little disconcerting. He didn’t give Lea much time to think, pulling him completely out of the bunk so Lea landed in a pile on top of him. Their lips pressed together, one hand anchoring Lea by the neck, the other curled, clutching his shirt front. It was so familiar, even if Isa felt stiff and cool under him _still_. There was an ache in his chest at the thought, like someone had reached in and squeezed and he pressed closer, eyes sliding shut.

“You’re going to be fine,” Isa said, pulling away just enough to speak, the words like a prayer. A sharp pain punctuated his words, and Isa swallowed the tiny gasp that passed Lea’s lips before the world crumbled away.

In the last moments of Lea’s shattered vision, Isa looked almost sad.

**Author's Note:**

> Sea Salt Fam is a wholesome and wonderfully surprising ending for AkuSai in KH3, one that has enabled me to write sad AkuSai with freedom! Knowing they get their happy ending means nothing I do to them here matters.
> 
> So for the first prompt, I took on the Nobody-ficiation of Isa and Lea. It's a little vague on purpose - our POV character doesn't realize what's happening after all, but hopefully you follow along.


End file.
